The most bizarre and wonderful buildings of our time …

Sometimes the building and construction industry achieves something truly special, awe inspiring and simply astonishing. Below are 6 of the worlds finest examples or architecture, marvels of the industry.

1) Empire State Building, NYC

The Empire State Building was once one of the tallest buildings in the world and is an integral part of the iconic New York Skyline. This timeless building was built in 1930 by the Starrett Brothers; it took 410 days to build and is a whopping 102 floors high. Over all it took 57,000 tons of steel to construct the building, 17 million feet of telephone wire servicing and it cost $24,718,000 to build.

2) Dancing House, Prague

The Dancing House or Fred and Ginger as some like to nick name it, is in Prague in the Czech Republic. It was designed by architects, Vlado Milunic and, Frank Gehry and it took from 1992-1996 to build. The spectacular design of the building is supported by 99 concrete panels which each have a different shape and dimension and on the top of the building is a large twisted structure of metal nicknamed Medusa. At first the Dancing House caused debate as the style of the house stood out from the other Baroque or Art Nouveau building structures but today the building is seen as a work of art adding value to the cityscape of Prague.

3) The Burj Al Arab, Dubai

The Burj Al Arab, Dubai is a luxury 7* hotel full to the brim of luxury commercial furniture and it is the fourth highest hotel in the world and it stands on an artificial island which is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The architect, Tom Wright said the building was designed to be an iconic, symbolic statement for Dubai and after 5 years of building and $650 million later this was achieved as The Burj Al Arab is definitely synonymous with Dubai.

4) Blur Building, Switzerland

The Blur Building in Switzerland is a suspended platform shrouded in a perpetual cloud of a man-made fog which was designed by architects, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio. The Blur Building can hold up to 400 visitors and its construction is designed to spray innumerable tiny drops of lake water from 31400 jets to create the fog like surrounding which is visible in all weathers.

5) HARPA Concert Hall and Conference Centre, Iceland

HARPA concert hall was opened in Iceland in May 2011 and was designed by the Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects in co-operation with Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson. The structure of HARPA consists of steel framework with different shaped glass panels consisting of different colours. Overall this 300,000 square foot concert hall masterpiece cost 164 million Euro to build.

6) Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

The Kunsthaus Graz was built as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2003 and since then it has become a huge agricultural landmark in Austria. This museum has been nicknamed the friendly alien by its creators, Peter Cook and, Colin Fournier and this is due to the unusual design. This design is embedded with 930 40 watt fluorescent rings into the outset skin which each function as a pixel which then radiate far into the urban area and beyond. The concept behind this building is that it is designed to hold all exhibitions of multidisciplinary, modern and contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day.